Is Time Up for Yeddyurappa?

UPDATE: B.S. Yeddyurappa, the chief minister of Karnataka, where the country’s main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party is in power, has agreed to resign from his post following allegations of corruption by the state’s anti-graft watchdog over illegal mining.

Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa resigned from his post following allegations of corruption.

According to reports in the Indian media, Mr. Yeddyyurappa told BJP chief Nitin Gadkari he will officially put in his papers to Karnataka Governor H.R. Bhardwaj Sunday. Contenders to replace him include the state’s rural development minister Jagdish Shettar, education minister in the state V.S. Acharya and law minister Suresh Kumar, according to NDTV news channel.

India’s main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party pulled the plug on its embattled Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa in the southern state of Karnataka, a day after the state’s anti-corruption chief submitted a damning report on illegal mining, naming the chief minister as a key suspected beneficiary.

Advertisement

The BJP’s top decision-making body, the parliamentary board, met in New Delhi Thursday, asking its tainted chief minister to step down with immediate effect.

“It has been decided there has to be a change in the leadership of the BJP legislature party in Karnataka. Accordingly, Mr. Yeddyurappa has been advised to tender his resignation immediately,” BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad said at a television press conference in New Delhi.

But Mr. Yeddyurappa, who denied profiting from illegal mining, continued to be defiant and ruled out his resignation. He is currently holding discussions with his supporters and other ministers in the state and is expected to go to New Delhi on July 31 for discussions with senior BJP leaders.

Mr. Yeddyurappa, 68, who assumed office in May 2008, has been at the center of the mining controversy after the federal government announced a probe last year into widespread allegations of illegal mining and corruption in the state.

On Wednesday, the state’s Lokayukta, or People’s Commissioner, N. Santosh Hegde made the report he authored public. It named Mr. Yeddyurappa and some of his family members as receiving kickbacks from companies mining illegally in a scam that the report said may have cost the country $3.6 billion in lost revenue.

“Having convinced myself that offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act have been made out, I have recommended to the Governor H.R. Bhardwaj, who is the competent authority to take action against the chief minister, to initiate further steps,” Mr. Hegde said at a press conference Wednesday as quoted by The Hindu newspaper.

Mr. Yeddyurappa also holds the mining portfolio in the Karnataka Cabinet.

The Congress party, which runs the United Progressive Alliance government in New Delhi, criticized the BJP for its delayed action on Mr. Yeddyurappa. The BJP for months has been taking the government to task over a series of corruption scandals.

“It is too late. This should have happened six months ago. The BJP cannot take the moral high ground now,” Congress’s Rajiv Shukla, who is junior minister for parliamentary affairs, said on the NDTV news channel Thursday.

He said it was still unclear whether Mr. Yeddyurappa was “really resigning.”

Observers say the BJP, so far, has been hesitant to act against Mr. Yeddyurappa since he helped the party form its first government in south India and his departure would affect the vote bank of the influential Lingayat community in his state.

Karnataka is the only southern Indian state where the BJP wields power.

Political analyst Chinatamani Mahapatra at New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University said the BJP has realized Mr. Yeddyurappa’s continuance in office would undermine the party’s position over corruption.

“The BJP is preparing to launch a full-on offensive against the Congress-led government in the upcoming monsoon session of Parliament. It cannot afford to have its anti-corruption plank be pulled down by Yeddyurappa’s defiance,” he said.

About India Real Time

India Real Time offers analysis and insights into the broad range of developments in business, markets, the economy, politics, culture, sports, and entertainment that take place every single day in the world’s largest democracy. Regular posts from Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires reporters around the country provide a unique take on the main stories in the news, shed light on what else mattered and why, and give global readers a snapshot of what Indians have been talking about all week. You can contact the editors at indiarealtime(at)wsj(dot)com.